Todd's Big Adventure

Long time, no type.

2010-06-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. It's been a long, long time. Who knows if anyone is going to even see this post.

Well, just in case someone will see it...here is a 13 minute video of pictures. YES! Pictures of things I have been up to in South Korea (and some in NORTH Korea too).

Shakespeare, DMZ tour, Preschool/Kindergarten teaching, hiking, food, Thailand, and other things.

Sorry that it has been so long. Hopefully this makes up for it...a bit.

In other news, I will be back in America for a whirlwind tour before heading BACK to South Korea for another year of adventure in the world of teaching. I will be in Minnesota for a brief day and a half (apologies in advance to those that I want to visit but won't be able to). After Minnesota is down to Iowa to visit the family. There is an open house planned for the 25th, so hopefully I will be posting the details on here as soon as I get a bit more solidified with that.

Okay, that is it for now. I am off to bed. Thanks for reading/looking.

Welcome back...Todd.

2009-11-17T06:11:00.000-08:00

No, that doesn't mean I am back in the United States. Sorry to get your hopes up. I am just saying a welcome back to me, the author of this blog, to this blog. It has been far too long since I have last written, and I apologize to you, the readers. It has been a pretty odd month here because I really haven't had much to write about. Most everything that has been happening has been pretty darn normal really. I go to work and I teach, but even that hasn't really contained many new stories. Add on top of the lack of excitement with my health not being the best for the past three weeks, it makes for a pretty boring blog. I will try to update you all with has happened since I last wrote.

1. I have had some lingering sickness that has mutated into different sicknesses for literally three weeks. It has been horrible and I can't wait to be better. Teaching while sick is just not as much fun. This week has been real bad. It started last week on Wednesday, which meant that I was really feeling horrible on Thursday. Fever, head cold, the whole bit. Friday was a bit better, which was good because I have recently gotten to take part in an improv comedy group here in Seoul and we had a show on Friday. (more on this later) I went home and went to bed pretty early Friday night, but still woke up on Saturday with no voice and still feeling horrible. I then had to cancel plans on Saturday (more on that later too) and Sunday (improv rehearsal). I then slept almost all weekend. I woke up once in awhile to eat and drink (a lot). It was horrible. No voice and a large concern that I had swine flu (I don't). Monday comes and I still had no voice. Taught anyway because we don't have any extra teachers. It was a challenge. Today I had a bit more of a voice, but I am still far from whole. At least I feel better.

2. I am in an improv troupe! I am excited because this means I have met some neat, nice people who think I am funny and I get the chance to show off some comedic abilities. All of my fellow teachers and even my assistant director came to the show on Friday night. It was a lot of fun. I addition to the show, I was auctioned off as a bachelor to help raise money for the homeless. I had a pretty good bit of money raised (80,000 won = $80) because a lot of ladies thought I was funny...I think.

3. I am cast in a Christmas reading/show. I am doing three readings, which I am flattered to do. I like all the pieces I am doing, which is great. However, I couldn't go to the first rehearsal because of my lack of voice. I look forward to the next rehearsal though. My friend Heidi is also in the show. The director was very, very complimentary to me, so that was nice.

4. Halloween. Wow. I had a good time creeping kids out during Halloween. We didn't teach classes, we just planned a game and then different classes came around and played our game. My game was like bobbing for apples, but the apples were hanging from strings. One kids actually lost his tooth IN the apple, so I had to give him that one. Other than that though, no children were able to get a bite out of the apple. I even tried...it was impossible.
I was a zombie:
And here are some awesome kids in costume! My favorite kid is the one in the orange sunglasses who is totally in character for this picture. What is he? I don't know...but he awesome whatever he is supposed to be.
5. I bought some random food. I still don't know what it was. It tasted like dough cooked over charcoals. I think that is what it was. I ate two bites and then threw them away. I bought them from a street vendor. I was curious...and now I know. I also bought a bottle of juice that tasted like peaches. Sadly, it had chunks of peaches in it too and I don't like to chew my drinks.
Okay. That is it for now. I have to go to bed so that I can hopefully have a better voice tomorrow. I am currently drinking hot water with honey in it, listening to James Taylor (that makes me miss my dad, playing Yahtzee, waiting for supper cooked by my mom, and then sitting down with Mom, Dad, Steph, Jon, and Kitty to eat it), and getting really drowsy.

Goodnight all and I will write again sooner.

Namsan Tower

2009-10-03T03:19:00.000-07:00

Chuseok is the Korean harvest holiday. It's like Thanksgiving in America. It means that I didn't have to teach on Friday. I had the day off and it was a beautiful, fall day. That meant a hike was in order. One of the veteran teachers took Blake and I to the area where Namsan Tower is located and we began the hike. Here is our destination from quite a ways away. This a meters away from the sub station that we arrived at, and we had a long ways to go.
After we made it to the trail head, we began the climb up the hill and through the forest. The trees had not started to change color yet, but you could hear the rustling of dry leaves. Soon, the leaves will be gold, orange, and brown, but for now it just sounded very nice. Also, there were a lot of pine trees and it reminded me of a forest in Northern Minnesota.
It looked like this was an area for runoff to go in order to prevent erosion. There were a few of them along the way. They had facts about the life cycle of frogs, which, I'm sure would have been interesting to any Korean reading child. I just looked at the pictures and learned...I think.Here are some mysterious creatures I saw in the woods. Oh...wait...those are English teachers. They are indigenous to this area.Along the way there were piles of rocks used as trail markers. I added a rock to a couple of them. They reminded me of when I climbed a mountain in Colorado and there was just NO way of knowing if you were on the trail or not. Thank goodness for previous hikers. The trail wasn't as hard to follow here because it was cut through the woods pretty darn well.Near the top of the hill there was a giant wall. At a time, long ago, this hilltop was used as a strategic outpost, so the evidence of some of these structures could be seen in a couple of places. The first picture is straight at the wall and the second is straight up the wall.We made it to the top! Here is the tower a bit closer. It is very big...and on the bottom of the tower is...These next few pictures are from the observation decks at the bottom of the tower. It cost money to get to the top, which would have been amazing, but I really didn't have the funds to do that. Maybe next time.There is a tradition for couples that go to Namsan Tower. They buy a lock together, write something on it, lock it on the fence at the top of the hill (base of the tower), and then, together, throw the key over the edge of the cliff. This means their bond will always be locked and they can't break it. Romantic, huh? There was a lot of locks up there and it was pretty neat to see.There were some great gardens...More shots from the observation areas at the base of Namsan Tower. Lot of great views, to say the least.Not sure what the story is with this fountain, but I saw it from kilometers away...yes...kilometers, not miles, away.Pictures of the Han river that runs right through the middle of Seoul...A pagoda and also, the signal fires to signal when armies where coming. One if by land, two if by sea...or something like that. I don't know...it was all in Korean.Hey! Look! It's me! And Seoul!More scenes from Seoul.We cheated and took the gondola down the mountain. I was in a hurry because at eight pm the first hockey game of the season was being shown at a great bar. I ate a cheeseburger and had a Coke and some garlic, cheesy bread. It was fantastic. Anyway, here are views from our ride down.Well, there you go. Happy Chuseok everyone. I am gonna enjoy some of my Chuseok gift from the school: three bottles of raspberry wine. Very good. Also, there is a plum wine in there that has flakes of gold. The director made sure we noticed that so we would think they spent a lot of money on us. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you all are enjoying the fall and the harvest. I certainly miss this time of year in the United States, so you should email me some pictures of the harvesting going on. Fall is my favorite time of year, so it will be interesting to be in a giant city where I will not see anything having to do with farming. Ok. Miss you all. Becky...if you are reading...I thought of you while I had my very own tea time today. It wasn't the same.

Later gators.

I win.

2009-09-27T02:56:00.000-07:00

Cold loses. I am feeling much better this weekend. This was a hard week because of how sick I felt all week, but I made it through and have spent this whole week and weekend just resting and sleeping. Here are a few quick pictures. Nothing exciting from this week because 1. I was sick. 2. I am running out of money. In fact, I may have to borrow some from some fellow teachers. I didn't really get paid very much this last paycheck, so after sending a large chunk of that money home to cover bills it is getting pretty tight for this last fourteen days. Ok, here come the pics.

Here are some of the classroom that I teach in. We all have planet names and I am Saturn. I was going to be Mars, but one of the teachers that had been there claimed it. Oh well, Saturn is pretty neat because it is at the end of the hallway and so we are in our own world. I like that. That means that we can shout and yell without worrying about disturbing other classes. We do a lot of noise making in my classes. It entertains me and the kids.
Here is my dryer working overtime in my apartment. Oh...that reminds me...I have to go put in some towels to be washed.
Here is a picture of one of my favorite things I have eaten here in South Korea. Some of you asked if I have eaten a lot of fish. The answer is, sadly, no. I have only eaten fish one time. It was good, but I really am looking forward to the next paycheck, so that I can eat some fresh, exotic fish. However, this chicken is pretty great. It is boneless (woman's style apparently? I don't know.) and covered in deliciousness. One of the kinds comes with large noodles and the other (yes, it comes with TWO kinds of boneless chicken!) is crispy and amazing. I didn't a picture of the actual food, but I am going to order it again and take a picture. I was too hungry and excited to take pictures of the actual food, but I did want you to see the strange person and the "woman's style" on the box. It makes no sense to me, but it tastes great. Also, this place introduced me to an amazingly tasty beverage. Green plum juice. I am going to miss this drink when I leave because it is soooo great. I have been drinking it a LOT.
Well, there you go. Sorry none of this is terribly interesting, but I am just thankful to be over my cold. Ok, well I have to go put away my laundry now. It is dry. Thanks for reading and keep up with the questions. I will try to answer them all.

Market.

2009-09-20T01:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the pictures from my adventure to the top of the hill behind my apartment. On the way to the base of the hill we walked through an outdoor (but covered) market. There are a lot of them around here, so this is just ONE of the many I have seen. Also, I have come down with a bit of a cold this weekend, so this post will not be really anything but these pictures. I just want to lay down some more. It is just a cold, but I really don't want to have this feeling while trying to teach. This week the kids take their monthly tests, so I am looking forward to seeing how they are progressing and if they are learning anything. Hopefully they are. We will see. Anyway, gonna try and destroy this cold now. Sorry this is so short. Also, sorry about this disorder of these pictures. I keep trying to make this website do what I want it to, but I still haven't really gotten it right yet. Hopefully sometime soon so you can follow along even easier. Until then...good luck.
1. BIG octopus for sale. How do you get them home? Seriously, if you were to have stretched these out they would have been as long as I am tall.

2. Beautiful looking fish. Now, if I only knew which ones to buy...

3. Tiny little octopus for sale. Grab a handful...or mouthful.

4. Sting rays. Yum?

5. Lots and lots of tiny dried fishes. Used for everything from soups to arts and crafts time. It's true. I saw them using them for an art project on TV once.

6. Lots and lots of peppers. You find these EVERYWHERE. These are used to make a lot of different things, but the main thing is kimchi. Spicy, delicious, and the cure for everything. hmmm...I should get some for my cold.

7. Out of the market, down the road, and onward to the base of the trail.

8. The base of the hill, start of the hike. My new friend and fellow teacher Tracy leads me up the stairs to...

9. Some great views...

10. Some nice trees...

11. And a pagoda filled with some really nice people who offered some very refreshing drinks called mokele and some delicious homemade food. They didn't speak any English, but they were so very friendly.

12. Blake and I at the top of the pagoda, looking out at the part of the city we live in. Keep in mind this is just a SMALL part of Seoul. A very, very small part.

13. Same view...fewer people.

14. At the end of the hike we discovered a natural spring. The water was cool and refreshing and it was delicious. I have been meaning to get back there in order to fill up some of my own water containers.

It was a good day for a hike. Now it is starting to feel like fall outside, so I am curious to see this area as the trees begin to change color and drop their leaves.

New Week

2009-09-05T22:11:00.001-07:00

Well, my first week of teaching is complete. I didn't have a chance to take pictures of the classroom, so those will have to be posted next time. In the meantime, here are some pictures of my new apartment.
Before I moved in:

The person who lived in my apartment before me did a lot of scuba diving, so he took some pictures of his adventures. Luckily he decided to leave them in the room because they are great. Also, he painted the room, so I am the only one with walls that are not white. They are a mocha-brown color. Yeah, it looks gray in the picture, but trust me, it is mocha-brown. I like the room a lot. It is basically like living in a dorm room again, which I never really minded. There is not a washer in the room like I expected, but there is one right next to my room which is very convenient. The bathroom is the shower room, same as the co-op that I stayed in, so cleaning the bathroom happens everyday even if I don't really do it. Handy, huh? Here are some pictures of the apartment after I moved in. I inherited a lot of things from some of the teachers that were finished with their time here. I even got a guitar! I am pretty excited about that because I knew that I would really miss playing while I was here. I also got a larger bed because the person before me had purchased it. Some people have just a tiny, single bed, so I feel lucky.

The bathroom looks the same as the other picture, but now there is stuff in it. Like I said, I like the place. I like the neighborhood too. Lots of places to eat, a couple of great street markets, a grocery store, the subway, the bus stop (I ride the bus to work), a mountain to hike up (it isn't very big), a neat park with lots of fountains and live music on Saturdays, and much much more to discover. All the teachers that I teach with live in the apartment building. Also there is another campus not to far from here that more teachers go to from this building, so it is very much like a dorm building filled with people that are doing the same things you are.
Teaching classes started on Tuesday, which was an adventure. I have three classes. The first one is 2nd graders learning at about a 1st grade English level. Things are still basic, but they can understand me pretty darn well. These kids are pretty amazing. This class contains nine children, so one of the challenges is making sure we go at a pace that will not be too fast for anyone but also be engaging for the ones that are a bit quicker. Also, they are kids so they tend to get antsy. I will have to work on this with them so they stop pestering each other. I am still trying to figure out a seating chart, but that is hard to do until I know which personalities are which. By the end of this week I will have it figured out.
The second class I have is a class of four 7 year old children. These kids are learning at a pretty low level, so we are still going over practicing the sounds that letters make. Practicing "l" and "r" and "v" and "b". They are super adorable. The challenge in this class is that one kid has really no idea what I am saying most of the time. Also, one of the rules of the school is no speaking Korean, but he breaks this rule. I have had to have someone tell him this rule in Korean in the head teacher's office. Next week this will have to happen again. Luckily, the little boy that sits next to this child lets him know that there is no speaking Korean. He is a good helper and has a good time in class. Like I said, all of these kids are adorable.
The third class I have are 5th graders learning at a 4th grade level. They are smart and enthusiastic. I like making everything we do fun, so it is much easier with these kids because they understand a lot more of what I am saying. We talked about creative writing last week and by the end of the week we were making comics based on what we had learned. Using character, setting, plot, and dialogue. They had a good time doing this and it seemed that would try it at home too. Really just good kids.
The weather is muggy here, but that hasn't stopped me from going hiking up the little mountain behind our building. I am waiting to get the pictures from Blake so that I can post them, but look for them soon.
Yesterday a few of us all went to Itaewon, a section of Seoul that is very Westernized. Well, I guess I mean that they have tried to make it a little more Westernized. There are a lot of foreigners there and a lot of the Koreans there speak a little English. It was pretty interesting. We had pretty alright Italian food and some good conversations about how the first weeks were going for everyone. Seems like my school placement has been a blessing, so I am glad. My other friends that came with from MN have a much more difficult schedule.

Well, I am going to end for now. Not the most exciting blog post ever, but I am sure there will be a few that will just give you a general knowledge that I am alive and teaching. Stories and pictures from kids will come soon enough.

Take care all.

Let the adventure begin!

2009-08-30T02:08:00.000-07:00

Ok. I am gonna try and do this. Trying to cram everything that has gone on the last few weeks will be tough, but I will do my best to type it all if you will do your best to read it all. Sound like a fair deal? Deal. For those of you haven't read my blogging before, let it be known that I LOVE lists, so many of the things you will read in the following year on this blog will be done in lists. It is somehow easier for me to remember everything that happens and hopefully it will help you remember to so you can remind me of the things I will inevitably forget. Alright, enough with the introduction, let's get to the meat of this blog...shall we?

1. My passport took forever to get back to me from the Korean consulate in Chicago. I had to send it there in order to get the E2 Visa stamp in it and before my plane ticket could be booked, I needed that document in my hand. Well, it came down to the very, absolute, last day that it possibly could. I owe a post master in Hampton, IA a huge big thank you because he drove an hour away to go and pick up my package for me. He made it possible for me to be on the same flight as my three friends. Huge advantage of living in a small town I suppose.

2. We flew from Minneapolis to San Francisco (left at 7am) and then from San Francisco to Seoul, Korea. Here is a picture of the stuff I tried to fit in the suitcase.
It's hard to pack everything you will need for a year. (Thanks Mom and Dad for letting me trash your basement for two weeks.) The first leg of the journey took about 4 hours and the second leg of the journey about 12 hours and 20 minutes. I never really sleep when I am traveling, so this made for a loooong flight. Luckily, on the airline we flew on over to Seoul, Korea (Korean Air) we each had individual screens on which we could watch whatever we wanted. There was actually a large selection of recent movies and TV shows to choose from as well as a bunch of music to listen to. I mostly watched movies the entire flight. Here is a brief list of things I saw (I won't remember them all because I was pretty out of it): Taken (the best movie I watched), Fast and Furious (this movie starts out so much like the original that I actually thought I WAS watching the original movie), I Love You, Man (much better than I had heard, you were right Steph and Jon), The International (I had only brief recollections of what this movie was...I will probably not remember anything about this movie later because it was pretty forgettable), aaaand that's all I can remember. Like I said, I was pretty out of it, but it was so nice to have the options right in front of me and to be able to choose whatever I wanted instead of having to watch one common, crappy movie. We did have two meals on the plane and I would have to say that, for how fancy everything else on the plane was (they gave us special socks to wear when we took off our shoes, an eye mask for sleeping, a beautiful blanket {no joke}, a toothbrush and toothpaste) the food wasn't real good.

3. When we arrived in Seoul at the airport, there was a driver to pick up Joe and Heidi, but Blake and I were left without a ride to our destinations. However, after awhile our driver did show up. Of course, he knew were to take us, but neither of us knew what the other was saying to each other, so it was a quiet ride. A quiet, long ride. The first thing I noticed when I walked outside was how hot and muggy it was. The second thing I noticed was the smell. Something like sewage, fish, and musty smell. Not the best scent ever. Now, my apartment wouldn't be ready until the end of the week, so I was dropped off at a co-op residence and Blake was taken to her apartment.
Here is the co-op room I stayed in:

<---Shower room. Yeah, the bathroom is one big shower. Here is the view right when you walk in the door.

Here is a picture from the bed looking at the door and the "kitchen"

Here is a view from the co-op window
It looks like there is a lot around the co-op, but I found out there really wasn't a whole lot. Apparently there is a Costco around the same area as the co-op, but I never found it. I guess that is where a lot of the teachers go in order to buy their meat and large quantities of groceries.

4. My first day of adventure. Blake lived a ways away from me in the apartment building I would eventually move into, so we thought it would be cool if I came to see what it was like there. She had gotten my room phone number before we parted ways, so she gave me a call via a payphone and gave me her address. I gave her address to the front desk worker at the co-op who translated a note written in Korean. Then, the front desk worker called the cab for me and I got in. I gave the note to the driver and we started off. It didn't take too long to get there, maybe twenty minutes. I paid the driver and off he went. I then went to the apartment building the driver pointed at when he left me. Blake's room was 508, so I got in the elevator and headed up to the fifth floor, stepped out of the elevator...and there was 501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, .......no 508. Uh oh. This is how my first adventure began...being dropped off in the completely wrong place by a cab driver....a completely wrong place in a city where no one speaks English. Great. Well, started looking around for anyone that looked like they may speak English and found a bank that looked like may do international banking. They were able to understand the address I had written in Korean and then showed me a map from their computer. I took a glance, said 'Thank you', bowed slightly, and went on my way. Their directions did not get me to the apartment, but I did find a post office. The post man drew me a map to the apartment...or what he thought was the apartment. It was not. However, I did find a police station and they pointed to the location on a large map. I wasn't too far away and I had a really good idea of where to go from the station. Finally, two hours after the cab dropped me off I walked into Blake's apartment. All in all, it was good to walk around that much because now I know where a lot of things are...I guess. After I visited the new apartment building and Blake for awhile we got something to eat (we had no idea what to order but the ladies that were working were really nice and just brought us some food) and it was delicious. I then decided to could navigate back to the co-op by walking. It was a long walk, but again, it was good to find a bunch of locations, and actually it was very easy to get there because I just followed the subway stops.

5. Wow. I hope you made it through that last part...it was pretty long.

6. Training. We had a day of training that was pretty good, but we still would not start teaching until Monday. We really couldn't go to the school at all because of the quarantine. We did get to met the teachers we would be teaching with and the next day we all went to staff dinner. They showed us how to eat some of the food and we had some great Korean barbecue and Korean drinks. Then many of us went to a noribang (pronounced nor-ee-bong) which is basically a single, rentable, karaoke room. Lots and lots of fun for everyone. After that we all went back to the apartment were we all live and sat outside and just got to know one another. Everyone is very nice and excited to show us around.

7. Blake and I ventured out and found an electronics market and that is how I am typing right now. We found power converters and power strips. The apartments are pretty small and only have a few outlets. As soon as I move into my place and get it set up I will take some pictures and post them with a new post.

8. All in all things are going really quite well. I actually am ready to start meeting the kids and set up my classroom. It will be a lot of work getting things rolling with the classroom and curriculum, but I look forward to the challenges ahead.

9. I will end this blog post with saying that everyone is very nice to us. Koreans understand that I have no idea what I am doing, but they are really excited to say 'Bye bye' and 'Thank you'. They seem to want to make that connection with me. I have learned that gam sa had nida (pronounced gahm say HAHD needa) means thank you, so I have been saying that a lot.

10. Look for another post soon as I have already had more adventures!

First Post = Test

2009-07-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

Just want to see if this thing will work or not. Check back and see how my adventures are going. There will be pictures and kind of log, of sorts, on here. I will probably start this soon because South Korea is getting closer and closer.